on April 30th 1945 Hitler died in a bunker in wartorrn Berlin It was a brutal end for one of history's greatest monsters and the months leading up to his death were no less dramatic By April 1944 exactly one year before Hitler's death anyone who knew the reality of Germany's situation had to admit the war was lost But in an off-the-cuff speech to some of the highest ranking members of the Nazi party Hitler continued to insist they were facing a mere setback It was the same stuff he'd been saying for years He has dimmed into his people by constant repetition the conviction that they are a super race headed for a great destiny Turns out they weren't But here's the thing Those who knew him best believed that this wasn't just an act but something Hitler truly believed deep down Up until at least the summer of 1944 Hitler told anyone who would listen that Germany would prevail As this belief became increasingly absurd he gave up trying to use facts and logic to bolster his argument Instead he began insisting that a German victory was inevitable because God had ordained it Hitler's many health issues grew much worse during the final year of his life On top of the worsening symptoms of Parkinson's disease Hitler suffered from a heart condition stomach issues skin problems jaundice and a polip on his vocal cord that required surgery just 5 months before he died Those close to him saw a man who was aging rapidly His hair was gray He hunched over when he walked and his eyesight began to deteriorate The Furer had once been known for his energetic almost frenetic speeches to the German people By November 1944 however he was so visibly unwell that he canceled the plan speech on the anniversary of Crystal Knock Instead one of his underlings read a statement In order to keep going Hitler relied on his doctor Teodor Morell and a staggering amount of drugs Hitler had used drugs throughout World War II but in his final year he became more and more dependent on Morell's so-called cures These drugs included methamphetamine cocaine and even poisons like stricken Historian Norman Oler spoke of Hitler's drug use during an appearance on NPR's Fresh Air Hitler needed those highs to substitute uh his natural charisma which he had had in the years prior but which he had lost Hitler might have believed the war could still be won for Germany but his people knew what was really happening Air raid sirens blared across Germany as the allies bombed cities without end while ordinary citizens lost more and more loved ones on the front lines Even propaganda couldn't hide the bare fact of the matter The German military was faltering and the Soviets were coming ever closer In early 1944 Hitler gave a speech on the radio to mark the 11th anniversary of his rise to power But he no longer captivated his audience the way he had for the previous decade And the reaction to the speech was harsh Even Hitler could tell his hold over the German public was slipping Because of this he began to step away from public life From 1944 onward he stopped giving his famous public speeches and moved to increasingly isolated locations possibly due to his dramatically aged appearance he refused to make regular appearances in news reels as he used to The fear was so conspicuously absent from public life that rumor had it that he was already dead Hitler was never able to find out when and where D-Day was going to occur before it happened but he did know it was coming It was clear for months before the landings at Normandy that the Allies would mount a major attack somewhere in Western Europe And although you wouldn't think that anyone would look forward to facing a major invasion Hitler actually wanted the Allies attack to happen During the spring of 1944 Hitler talked constantly about the inevitable invasion The anticipation was stressful sure but he insisted that the German army would thoroughly crush the Allies when it came He believed the Nazi victory would be so complete that both Churchill and Roosevelt would be overthrown as a result Spoiler things didn't quite work out that way When D-Day arrived on June 6th 1944 the Nazi command was caught totally unprepared Bulletins have been pouring in from Berlin claiming that D-Day is here claiming that the invasion of Western Europe has begun General Raml was returning from a weekend away to celebrate his wife's birthday and Hitler was literally asleep When he woke up he became visibly thrilled by the news and only got more excited as the day went on Joseph Gobles recorded that it was as if a huge weight had been lifted from Hitler's shoulders now that the inevitable had finally happened Even better the furer was certain that the bad weather would help bring speedy German victory As the day wore on however it became clear that the Allied invasion was succeeding From February to July 1944 Hitler lived full-time at the Burgoff his own personal mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps While there he and his entourage existed almost in a fantasy world Hitler and Ava Braun entertained their closest friends and subordinates and they acted the perfect hosts as the Third Reich fell apart around them Hitler slept late sometimes until noon and would then take part in hourslong meetings with his generals where he planned among other things the final horrific stages of the Holocaust But a lot of time at the Burgoff was set aside for enjoyment Hitler chatted freely with the wives of his underlings asking about their children There were hikes ending with tea and cake and long dinners where discussions of the war were banned Often special events would take place at the Burgoff Braun hired a magician to perform at the retreat for 2 weeks It was noted that Hitler seemed to particularly enjoy these shows The final big party held there was the wedding reception of Braun's sister to an SS officer In mid July Hitler left the Burgoff and traveled to the secret military base with the fitting name the Wolf Slayer Hitler survived over 40 assassination attempts during his life but the one that came the closest to succeeding occurred on July 20th 1944 at the Wolf's Layer The conspirators were Hitler's own senior officers who had decided that he needed to be killed in order to prevent the total destruction of Germany A seemingly random event meant that Hitler survived the attack The bomb intended to kill him had been placed in a suitcase which somebody moved behind a large table at just the wrong moment Four others in the room died when the bomb went off but Hitler got away with hardly a scratch Hitler's retaliation against the plotters was swift and brutal A handful were executed within hours of the plot's failure while the rest and many hundreds more people besides were put to death in the following days and weeks Most of the victims were killed by firing squad although a few suffered even worse fates Erin von Wittlebin a field marshal who'd helped lead the invasion of France in 1940 was hanged with a thin rope from a meat hook The manner of von Wittelbin's death was a personal order from Hitler who wanted him to die like cattle in a slaughter house A few conspirators did survive however The last Evald Hinrich von Kle died in 2013 Evolv was willing to make a difference in the history of his country and ultimately the history of the world Hitler's downward spiral only worsened after the July 20th plot While he had never been a particularly rational human being duh the realization that his own subordinates were capable of turning on him caused his mental state to collapse The already paranoid Hitler shrunk his inner circle further and further punishing or cutting out anyone who wasn't utterly devoted to him At the same time he gave huge amounts of power to four of his most loyal commanders Hinrich Himmler Joseph Gobles Martin Borman and Albert Spear Despite what these men thought however Hitler wasn't handing them any real authority The Nazi party was still a cult of personality one where power flowed from the furer alone This dynamic saw the four men involved in a constant power play one in which any one of them might earn more power by courting the leader's favor Considering the dysfunction this caused at the heart of the Third Reich it's perhaps no surprise that Germany failed to reverse its fortunes in the war The most famous of the Axis powers were Germany Italy and Japan But a number of other nations fought alongside them Fun fact the last time the US declared war officially was in 1942 against three of the lesserknown Axis countries Romania Hungary and Bulgaria This tentative alliance held from the beginning of the war until autumn 1944 Having faced a number of military setbacks Romania Finland Bulgaria and Hungary all left Germany in the lurch by surrendering signing ceasefires or even in Romania's case switching sides Italy had already surrendered to the Allies a previous year leaving Germany pretty much alone in Europe By this point even those close to Hitler felt that the best hope for Germany was to sue for peace especially with the Soviet Union Much of the pressure in this regard came from Germany's one real remaining ally Japan This was a cunning move by Japan You see the Soviets and the Japanese signed a neutrality pact in April 1941 and the Russians held true to that But at the same time the Japanese brass knew what was coming So one way of holding on to what they had was to have Germany sue for peace If Russia honored their deal and the Nazis were officially done Japan might be able to keep all their spoils In theory of course Yet despite this being Germany's one chance of escape from total obliteration Hitler refused to consider it As 1945 approached things never looked bleaker for Germany until somehow they didn't In November and December 1944 things nearly improved The Allied advance in Europe had paused And so Hitler decided to take advantage of this with one last military push The Germans spent weeks planning a major counteroffensive in the Ardan one of that Hitler believed would turn the tide of the war Moreover Hitler had consolidated his power after the attempt on his life in July 1944 And there were even rumors in the German press that the country had almost finished constructing a secret weapon that could destroy the Allies While Hitler had to know that the Nazis were nowhere near building an atomic bomb he nonetheless spoke about it with an ally in August 1944 claiming that it was a real possibility for the Germans Of course it wasn't to be The last of Hitler's hopes were crushed when his Ardan offensive fell apart Now known as the Battle of the Bulge the German counterattack was a complete failure As the calendar turned to 1945 Hitler ran out of options Defeat was now utterly inevitable for the Third Reich By the beginning of 1945 even Hitler was aware that time was running out And so he turned to the question of survival From January to his death in April Hitler refused to leave the Chancellory building in Berlin He spent most of his time in the air raid shelter beneath it with a small group of his closest adviserss These included Joseph Gobles Ava Braun and various bodyguards and secretaries One of those secretaries Pradle Yunga eventually published her recollections of those final months She remembered Brun throwing endless parties the terror of the Allied bombardments and how even the men who were closest to Hitler abandoned him as the end neared By his final weeks it was too dangerous for Hitler to even leave the so-called fur bunker He spent the last 10 days of his life underground The day before he died Adolf Hitler married Ava Braun It was hardly a big event considering everyone knew the end was imminent But Hitler had always said that Braun would be the one who stayed with him until the end And the ceremony may have been a way of rewarding her for doing just that after 11 years together On April 30th 1945 the Soviets were on the brink of taking Berlin Hitler said goodbye to those who remained with him in the Pure Bunker and then went into a room alone with Brawn They both bit into cyanide capsules which had been tested on his dog Blondie the day before This is what killed Brawn Although Hitler shot himself before the poison could take effect And yes that's a thing Unlike what the movies tell you there is a bit of time before the cyanide kicks in Just enough to get a round off I guess Their bodies were burned in the courtyard of the Chancellory as Hitler had instructed 7 days later Germany surrendered to the Allies